This invention relates to a hand-held wand, which, when held in close proximity to the skin, creates electrical sparks. The sparks produce ozone gas in the immediate area, i.e in close proximity to the skin. The ozone is a strong oxidiser, which is beneficial in eradicating bacteria in the skin surface area.
The beneficial effects of electrical sparks, and the resulting ozone, on the skin are well-established, and it has been a conventional practice in beauty salons to provide a spark/ozone producing apparatus for the purpose. However, the conventional apparatuses have had certain disadvantages. For instance, the conventional apparatus has included not only the hand-held wand, but has had to include also an isolation transformer. The isolation transformer is large and heavy--so much so that generally it has had to be positioned on a nearby table, being too cumbersome to be incorporated into the hand-held wand of the apparatus. The isolation transformer was necessary to prevent persons from being exposed directly to mains electricity in the event of a breakage in the apparatus.
In any apparatus that is powered from the AC mains, care must be taken to prevent the user from being exposed to an electric shock in the event of a misuse or breakage of the apparatus. Also, of course, there are regulations to be met, which require certain safety standards for mains-powered apparatus. In the case of a hand-held apparatus, the designer would prefer, if it were possible, for the apparatus to be battery-powered, or at least for the apparatus to use a power supply that is transformed down to low voltage, because then there would be no safety regulations.
However, mains-power is favoured in the case of a spark-producing apparatus of the kind with which the invention is concerned. In such apparatus, the spark is provided by the process of charging a capacitor, and of then rapidly discharging the capacitor through the primary of a spark-inducing transformer. The rapidity with which the capacitor can be discharged into the primary of the spark transformer depends on the impedance of the circuit connecting the capacitor and primary, and depends on the voltage to which the capacitor has been charged.
It has been found that charging the capacitor to a voltage derived from the untransformed mains is not enough to achieve the desired rapid spark discharge-times. In other words, to get a good spark, the mains voltage needs to be stepped up, not stepped down. Thus, powering the spark device by means of a battery, or from a transformed-down mains-derived supply, has been found to be unsatisfactory, attractive though those power systems are from the safety standpoint.
The conventional isolation transformer was used not only to isolate the person from the possibility of direct contact with the mains, but was used also to step up the mains voltage to a level at which the spark capacitor could discharge its energy very rapidly into the primary. However, this conventional structure was cumbersome and expensive--so much so, that the apparatus could not be considered practical for occasional home use, by untrained persons. If a person wished to undergo a course of ozone treatment, for the removal of skin blemishes for example, the person had to pay regular visits to the beauty salon where the apparatus was located.